“Suuuun... buddy! where are you?”

Lin arrived with Mia at the camp-site and couldn't find Sun anywhere within the range of his soul-sense! the young boy circled the premises and called-out for his beast-companion in a slightly displeased tune under the curious gaze of unkempt-Mia's green eyes. The young-woman's previous frustration at the boy -and his proclaimed twin-sister who pushed her down twice in the spirit-awakening ranking- didn't lessen at all but her sharp eyes noticed the boy's noticeable gait which has apparent maturity in its actions. If she were to judge his character according to her intuition then Lin’s temperament is that of someone who’s older than herself! according to her assumptions then this boy is behaving naturally like some mortal who’s thirty-something of age but definitely less than forty-years old and that's what Mia's intuition kept screaming at her. His calm and relaxed-stance plus the way his body moves when he isn’t using his wings are clear and visible indications that his physique is well-trained to be synchronized. Genius is the word that rang in Mia's head once she saw the naturalness and ease when Lin applied what would seem to be a very refined footwork and very easily maintained this movement-technique in all of his actions which gave another touch of elegance to his mysterious character. However this young-woman knew that this isn’t the boy’s natural-born characteristic because there was moments when his movements would lose their fluidity and that special charm would disappear to reveal awkwardness before the boy quickly regain his previous control over his steps and force his body back into cohesion. Honestly Mia was very shocked when she figured-out what Lin is doing because that’s exactly like training all the time! if others only take six hours per day to train their physique and hone their skills then rest for the remainder of the day. Lin here would do four-times their work every day if he kept his current dedication in training his physique while preserving the stamina which his body would burn if the boy trained for a longer time compared to others. But the problem in this scenario is that this method would require an enormous amount of concentration and focus from the boy to keep doing so every day. While the regular and average duration of training the physique six hours per day already burn a very hefty sum of stamina and concentration. Most of the body-refiners struggle with recovery from the accumulated muscle-fatigue and mental-strain more so than the exercise or the training itself! but muscle-fatigue can be easily cured or hastened towards recovery with the help of an experienced alchemist. Mental-strain however is a much more difficult issue to tackle because the required ingredients are rare and the mental-capacity differs from one person to another. Insane will-power is the decisive factor here and Mia knows from experience how hard it’s to find a person with a true and genuine back-bone and fortitude in will-power in that early age.

'Freak.' Mia thought while she stood in place watching Lin move around her and shout in that strange language of his and kept herself alert whenever the boy exited her range of sight. The young-woman was sure that this Lin could possibly be one extremely dangerous opponent for her in this land of forgetfulness! these wide and black eyes which are dark like a moonless sky with their depth that she couldn't and wasn’t able to see what kind of abyss lies-behind their thick curtains of mystery made it hard for Mia to perceive his current capabilities or make a close estimation of his current-power. Other than the boy’s ability to use his martial-spirit in this land of forgetfulness and his terrifying soul-cultivation Mia knows nothing about Lin’s background because he wasn’t willing to divulge anything and the glint in his eyes when she asked the boy about his family made the young-woman refrain from asking anything afterwards. His calm personality also added to the difficulty of judging him correctly and confused the saintess much further. This isn't the first time Mia saw a soul-cultivator at all and those she met who were in the realm of soul-eye or higher despite being only seven senior-cultivators had one thing in common. Their eyes which were all too mysterious and frighteningly-deep! but Lin’s eyes isn't the same like these seniors which she met because his eyes are calm-deep instead. Other soul-cultivators you can kind-of expect their retaliation if you happen to confront one of them in the battlefield and that's why the saintess sensed other soul-cultivators and judged them to be mysterious and a frightening-breed of opponents. Lin however gave Mia the feeling of meeting the unknown! if she tried to forcefully pry-deeper into his secrets then it’s no different from courting death right there and then. The kind of unknown which will make you completely helpless if you happen to stand against it or idiotic enough to try and attempt to annoy it. With this kind of people Mia always took a single approach flee as fast as she could and the farther she could get from that threat the better! being a sword-cultivator Mia always had a single thing which never made her worried against fellow cultivators in the same realm or cultivators a few stages higher than her. Lethality when it comes to attack and offense. Mia's offensive-edge is almost unequal amongst her peers because of her very developed sword-intent. Added to her talent in the element of time and her top-class spirit-cultivation technique and the young-woman is one of the few powerhouses in her current realm of spirit-grandmaster. But her defense has always been a cause for worry and Mia did her best to stock-up on defensive spirit-tools and a variety of single-use defensive-talismans and this apparent-weakness and disadvantage of hers isn’t going to be covered soon unless she reach the spirit-lord realm. Because in that realm the spirit-energy would start crystalize within the dantian and give an insane boost to any cultivator when it comes to the aspect of defense. Mia wouldn't mind if others gained in defense too because her offensive-aspect is already more than enough to sever any enemy or entangle them with her swordsmanship. Sword of time is her style and Mia has confidence in her abilities but to do that the young-woman needs to cross the entirety of the spirit-tyrant realm first! she’s sure to cross it no matter how long that would take her to accomplish. Until then she has to either find the perfect defensive spirit-tool or better yet if it’s a defensive inheritance-tool. Or to find a tailor-made defensive-technique which is compatible with her time-element and martial-spirit. If such dream-technique is compatible with her sword-intent too then the perfect fusion of her different powers could be made and Mia would be unstoppable then! her speed is fast and while being a spirit-grandmaster the young-woman could be ranked in the top five in the spirit-grandmaster realm. But that would only be true if we're discussing spontaneous-movement and short-distance explosive bursts. If Mia is faced with an enemy whom she's in immediate need to run or escape from them then she only holds the forty-fifth ranking instead! the severe drop in her ranking between the two aspects of speed is clearly another weakness in her foundation and another matter which Mia plans on fixing in the near future. Spiteful-Katherine who’s Mia's rival since childhood always took pleasure in comparing Mia to the young-woman’s tamed-beast Xiaoxi. Her current movement-technique is only an incomplete-manual unfortunately. Still it’s a mid-rank forbidden-technique compatible with her affinity to the time-element despite being an incomplete movement-technique.

Here she's. One of the superior-few of her generation. Others may call her a monster of an era yet the saintess is standing in front of a small child who’s six years of age but gave Mia the same feeling of danger just like these senior soul-cultivation who were a few generations her senior! the alarm-bells kept ringing in her chest while her intuition kept sending her this message very clearly : 'Don't provoke this kid and stifle-down your frustrations already! we shouldn’t make someone like him our enemy.' Mia felt it through the keen senses of her sword-intent earlier when Lin tried to investigate her soul with his soul-sense for some reason. Thankfully the boy’s attempt was mild and gentle and he stopped trying again for a second time once the aura of her sword-intent blocked his soul-sense. Somehow Mia felt warmness inside her chest when she remembered what happened and approved of Lin's actions when she saw the calm and collected expression on his face which only had a slight touch of annoyance on it because the boy is in a hurry to leave. He didn't seem to be annoyed at his failed attempt to investigate her soul when he tried and didn't lower his guard against her ever since they met either which was the right decision in her opinion! Mia did her best earlier to hold-back her sword-intent and stop it from forcefully-clashing against Lin's soul-sense. She was tired and didn't want to lose this god-sent opportunity of this boy’s assistance which could help Mia evade or overcome her pursuit. But... will she be able to convince him to help her? he already refused once though.

“Meow...”

The sound of a small kitten grabbed the attention of Lin who just landed and rattled the daydreaming-Mia awake. The boy had already noticed the small kitten near their campsite when he arrived and ignored the animal because there’s no harm from such a small animal on his belongings which is stored in the supply-box. However when he returned after searching and taking an intensive look around the campsite Lin was met with the same kitten meowing and looking at him.

“Such a cutie! are you hungry? sorry... I don't have food for you. Looks like the both of us are going to depend on our friend Lin here for our next meal.”

Mia's heart instantly melted when this tiny orange kitten with its extremely fluffy fur and bloated tummy pawed its way towards her and she knelt-down on both knees to welcome it and waited with open palms! but the next thing this little-fatty did broke her heart into smithereens when the kitten quickly ran below the arms of the young-woman and went towards the boy's feet instead.

“Humph! if only could I access my space-ring right now, then I would've made you beg me for a hug, but I'll let it go... tsk, since you're so cute and all. Snort.”

Mia was annoyed because that small and adorably-cute animal choose to seek Lin's favor instead of jumping into her embrace! -which was the outcome she wished for it to happen earlier- getting-up and crossing her hands the young-woman stretched her lips and muttered these words in a grumpy-attitude while staring enviously at Lin who carried this little kitten on his palm and softly tickled it behind the ears with the other hand.

“Looks like this little-fellow is on its own. Hey little-one... where's your family at? did you wander-away and got lost?”

Lin asked without expecting any reply and played with the kitten on his palm since he’s still waiting for Sun to return from wherever he went. Since he knew the scorpion-tailed Cerberus isn’t like a dog who sniffs the path after its prey but is capable of feeling the direction of Mia instead. The boy led the young-woman back to the supply-box through a road which has a tricky and extremely hidden shortcut in the rocky-terrain that forced their pursuers to change their direction suddenly and be forced to climb or descend or go around one rough-terrain after another while Mia followed after Lin thorough the easy route and they widened the distance between them and the assassins. Of course Lin still maintained his cautiousness and kept his guard-up against this sword-user who’s beyond the grade of a master in his honest opinion! by maintaining his distance of one-hundred meters and watching every move the young-woman is making with his soul-sense all the time the boy was assured of his safety. Even though this great-sage loves to bet and gamble with his luck he never liked and maybe never will gamble with his life... again! last time he made such a dangerous decision it cost him his life. The current second-chance in life which he got is still a giant question-mark that's left unanswered inside Lin's head and before getting that answer he will play it safe. But according to his estimations this little trick which the boy played on the two assassins by navigating Mia away from them will only buy enough time to wait here in the campsite for eight-minutes maximum! if they are lucky and their pursuers are taking it easy then it would be nine-minutes before the two assassins are back in the range of his soul-sense.

“Just why didn't I use the ability of soul-candle on Sun before? damn-it buddy... where did you leave to at such a time? it was just a meal that you snatched, it isn’t like I'm so mad to the degree of leaving you behind! you should really hurry back.”

Lin counted the seconds and he muttered faintly while running his fingers through the soft fur of the little-kitten.

“Meow...”

“Heh... are you hungry?”

“Meow... purr...”

Excitement was in the eyes of the little-kitten when Lin walked towards the supply-box to place the plates and push everything back in place. The boy helped it to some of the leftovers inside the frying-pan but it gave him a strange look before it decided to eat that food anyway.

“Meow! meow... meow.”

“Sorry little-one I can't take you with me, I’m going away from here, you should stay here since your family might come looking for you.”

The tiny kitten gave a disappointed-sound when Lin placed it on the ground after closing every compartment of the supply-box. The kitten meowed repeatedly while trying to hold-on to Lin's trouser with its adorably tiny paws to climb-up! this sight was something which Mia watched happen in jealousy and her previous annoyance intensified. Maybe Mia didn’t notice it happen despite how her intuition warned her of going against Lin or holding any kind of grudge against the boy because she’s been pressured and very strained mentally ever since the young-woman exited the island which contains the entrance to the trials of the drowned-realm. coincidentally Mia is purely by habit such a person who loves fun-occasions and the young-woman's favorite time of the day is when she’s accompanying her cute beast-companion! and despite being a very talented sword-cultivator this saintess of the seamless-sword sect is actually a very lazy woman who liked to have fun and fool-around all day if possible. Even her tamed-beast is from a species which is extremely famous for its laziness even more so for its extremely weak short-memory! some say these beasts are too lazy to even use their own heads.

“Growl...”

“Whoa!... hrmmmm...”

“Eek! watch-out... huh!... is he your... then why did we waste all this time in the first place?”

“En... he’s my friend indeed, but this is the first time I saw him do that trick.”

“Oh! come-on then... let's go. These two will catch-up anytime now.”

“You’re right.”

First thing the boy was about to do when he sensed the strange change that was happening to this kitten was flee. But his soul-sense picked-up the familiar soul-signature of the beast when it changed to a much bigger form. Lin was looking at Sun who miraculously turned into a building-sized tiger from the palm sized kitten! even his orange fur when Sun was in the previous kitten-form turned back into the blood-red color when he inflated himself back to his original form. In the beginning Mia was startled and thought that Sun was a threat to Lin's life but she discovered that the beast just crouched in front of the little-boy and raised him up with its two forelimbs extremely gently. Then the young-woman pouted her lips again and hurried the two who looked to be playing to stop their games -which she wishes to join very badly right now- and hurry to continue escaping from the assassins.

“Remember Sun... you're still going to be grounded later because of what you did earlier, but now isn't the time to correct this bad behavior of yours.” Lin didn't forgive Sun for snatching his food and reminded him of his incoming punishment

“Whine...”

“Stop whining you glutton!... go get the box already.” The message is clear! snatching Lin's food isn't going to pass without repercussions.

“whimper...”

Lowering his ears while giving an expression which looked similar to someone who’s sighing! Sun went to carry the box on its back.

“Sorry Mia... Sun doesn't like it when others t-”

“His name is Sun huh! What is it that he doesn’t like? why’s he looking at me like that?”

“It... seems like he doesn't mind giving you a ride, climb-up quickly before he changes his mind.”

“Really? hahaha... here I come, stay still now.”

When the boy tried to apologize to Mia about Sun's irritation whenever he’s having strangers mount his back Lin saw his beast-companion going to stand next to Mia and made a gesture with his head as if saying : “get on my back. But don’t you dare do anything funny! understood? shrimp.” Of course Mia’s expression changed greatly from pouting and puckering her lips like a child throwing a tantrum to smiling widely and cheering like a kid who received his favorite toy or candy! and the young-woman squatted-down before pushing the ground with her feet to jump towards the wide back of the tiger.

'Seems like Sun is trying to change my mind about punishing him later by letting Mia ride his back, heh... nice try buddy.' Lin thought and he watched Mia’s smile in excitement when she found that Sun accepted to let her mount his back without growling or trying to shake her off of his back. The tiger just ignored her completely and followed after his human friend to travel at night for the first time in more than a week.

Lin was happy with this new unexplainable-discovery of Sun's body! because now they wouldn't be constricted when sailing on a boat while they travel in the water anyway. Sun's smaller size in that kitten-form would enable Lin to escape while carrying the tiger with him in-case if they encounter a dangerous opponent in any environment which is unfavorable for them. Otherwise without Sun’s new ability of changing sizes they'll have to separate shortly while Sun escapes Lin would grab the enemy’s attention by provoking it then try to delay the enemy or lead it away from his beast-companion for as long as possible until Sun is away from danger before the boy disengages from the enemy and quickly reunite with his tiger and flee together. Lin was prepared to meet larger and much deadlier monsters ever since he decided to leave the village in this trip! creatures much more formidable than the huge bird or the big mammoth and the vulture-king when it’s accompanied by its committee. That's why the boy taught Sun how to react if they met such formidable monsters before they left home.

Mia happily mounted Sun's back and enjoyed resting on his comfortable fur while they widened the distance between them and the two assassins. Lin flew ahead and Sun sprinted agilely behind him until they were more than one-hundred kilometers away from the two assassins before the boy stopped and decided to make camp.

While Lin was making some food for Mia she woke-up from her sleep at the rich and lovely aromatic-smell of roasted meat and many other dishes. The young-woman saw the boy standing in front the strange metal box which his beast carried on its back and was busy stirring soup and roasting meat on top of lit fire or chopping vegetables! now that box is open and spread wide to the sides from the middle and became like a wall in front of Lin and had many of its parts flipped-out or pulled like drawers to form a very neat miniature-version of a kitchen. Sun is in his original-form was crouching next to Lin's body and was obediently staying motionless but his eyes were staring at every dish being made by his best friend intensely while the tip of his tail danced like a rattle-snake.

“Gulp...”

Mia reflexively gulped on her saliva and the sound of was a bit too loud which caused her to blush madly in shame because even though Lin and Sun were more than sixty-meters away from her right now any mortal could still hear her in this silent and windless summer-night especially since it was deep in the night and approaching dawn. Not to mention that one of the two is a soul-cultivator in the realm of soul-eye and the other is a demonic-beast which formulated its "core" and gained partial intelligence after unlocking some of its inherited-memories and awakening some of its dormant-bloodline.

“I didn't want to wake you up before I'm finished. Come Mia... sit. Your table will be ready in a few seconds.”

“Uh-huh. T...thanks, it smells really good from this far way!”

“Then I hope it would taste the same.”

Lin sent while scooping some thick and steaming-hot soup in a bowl then he pulled a hidden-handle on the spread-open metal-box which caused a three-meter circular-table and four chairs to come-out from the lowest part of the box after the mechanism was activated. Despite already seeing the boy fold this strange table and chairs once before they left earlier. This young-woman gave him a strange look before deciding not to say anything and took her sword in her palm then walked towards the table. Sun pulled the table and chairs away from his best-friend and stopped when he was forty-something meters away from the box and glared at this fortunate-shrimp! Mia understood that she isn’t welcome to move closer to Lin when Sun was the one to arrange the table for her. Various plates of food which looked to be made from countless types of strange ingredients were placed in front of Mia by the tiger when she sat down which made her hesitate slightly! but the extremely tempting aroma made her hurry to cast-away all shadows of doubts from her mind and gather her courage to taste one of the dishes.

“Kyaah!... this... tastes amazing. This one too... t... thank you Lin I-”

“Good to know that I didn’t embarrass myself, no need to overthink things, just finish your food.”

“Alright...”

Lin quickly interrupted the young-woman’s message and saw her puckering her lips when she answered but there’s joy in her eyes.

In no time after that short-conversation through the soul-link. Mia got extremely busy digging-in on every plate and bowl and enjoyed every dish while stuffing her mouth in a manner which is completely unladylike because this meal turned-out to become super delicious.

“This is very delicious... you really can cook little-Lin... yummy! this one is bittersweet. Here Sun... huh... why’s he refusing to eat it? he looks hungry though.”

“He’s grounded.”

“Whoa! Is that why he isn’t eating?”

“Yes... he’s asking me for permission.”

“You’re being cruel-”

“Forgive me if I’m being blunt here but this really has nothing to do with you... enjoy your meal.”

“Eek! rude... but I guess you’re right.”

Mia started to enjoy her meal under the envious-gaze of Sun who licked his lips continuously and salivated to no end. Still when the young-woman tried to offer the beast some of the food generously he would whine softly and scratch gently at Lin's trouser in a pleading gesture which appeared to be asking for the boy’s permission before he accepts this shrimp’s generosity! but Lin ignore Sun’s and continued to investigate the tiger's body and intensively scanned it with his soul-sense while stopping Mia from intervening. Curiosity was peaked in the chest of great-sage Lin after witnessing such a phenomenal thing happen in Sun's body. Seeing the tiger change shape from a huge and exaggerated tiger the size of a building into a small kitten no larger than the size of the boy’s palm. Is more than enough encouragement to make Lin try and seek a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon because not only did Sun gain the ability to grow bigger or shrink in size but also his weight increased and decreased in the two different shapes! while the soul-signature differed completely and Lin couldn’t recognize his beast-companion when it was right in his palm and scanned many times with his ability of soul-sense.

“Again... change back into a tiger, do it buddy! why are you acting lazy now?”

“Meow...”

“Huh... tired? you don’t look exhausted at all!”

“Meow... whine...”

After lowering its head the small-kitten grew back bigger into the original form of a building-sized tiger in a little bit less than a split-second.

“Again.”

“Growl...”

“I’ll be the one to say if it’s enough! do you want me to extend your punishment?”

“Whine...”

“Hurry and transform then...”

Mia watched this strange and ignorant boy make his tamed-beast change form again and again and wondered what is he after since the secrets and all methods related to the system of how beasts advance in is an enigma to peak-tier cultivators and these are spirit-emperors or spirit-sovereigns! Lin isn’t a spirit-apprentice yet and he’s trying to know how can a demonic-beast change form and make its body shrink. Mia wondered if he will try and do the same if he met one of the unique variant-beasts who could make their bodies grow bigger instead.

“Lin... I know that you said this isn’t my business but, I would stop forcing Sun to do that anymore if I were you.”

“Hrmm... do elaborate then.”

Mia sighed then sent this message to stop Lin but of course she choose to intervene when Sun was in his cuter form. Lin didn’t ignore his guest and waited to hear her explanation if she had any.

“This shape-shifting ability actually make the demonic-beasts very hungry because it drains the stored energy within their bodies in huge amounts after every use, since their huge physiques require bigger amounts of energy to sustain the normal day-to-day activity, they usually tend to prefer their smaller forms because it saves them much more energy which they can tap into it whenever they need to engage an enemy or defend themselves. Sun isn’t like you Lin, like me he can’t use his demonic-core to draw spirit-energy in this land, I bet that whenever he uses this ability without the assistance of his suppressed spirit-energy then he’s entirely relying on his life-force and the primordial-vitality from his demonic-core! and from my inexpert-eye I think his demonic-core is yet to fully develop.”

“Demonic-core!... is that a round-object? dark in color and has grey lines on top of its surface and is approximately this size.”

“You saw one before huh! they’re mostly round yes, but the color, shape, and size, could be many, many things really.”

“Is it in their brain?”

“Yes and no, some beasts are very cunning and they move them from that area and relocate their cores in a much more fortified places in their bodies to cover that weakness and confuse their enemies. Anyway, you made Sun use this ability seven times now already! overexerting his energy is very, very bad because it will delay his advancement in the future, you better make sure to feed him bigger meals afterwards and whenever he uses this ability or his growth will be hindered or it might stagnate completely if you ignore this issue instead.”

Mia didn’t say anything after that and resumed her meal while feeling delighted because Lin didn’t argue with her and listened-attentively to her advice. This made the young-woman’s ego be satisfied slightly since knowing more than this ignorant boy has elevated the way she sees herself as his mentor instead of a person of comparison.

“Buddy... were you already capable of using this ability long before we left?”

“Purr...”

“Someone has been keeping secrets from me huh.”

“Meow...”

“I know, you must’ve been afraid of Lily, I guess she would’ve really made you her lab-rat, I want to see that core of yours, so try not to move. I just wonder how did I miss it, my soul-sense has scanned you like... a thousand times before!”

“Yawn...”

Lin raised Sun up and directly touched his own forehead with Sun's small head when he spoke and the kitten in his hands didn’t seem to mind but it looked exhausted almost to sleep! the boy was trying to zoom-in on and locate the strange organ in Sun's head with his soul-sense.

“Found it! but how did it just appear?”

“Meow...”

“Do you mean that without your consent, I’ll be blocked whenever I use my soul-sense!”

“Purr...”

Sun nodded and licked Lin’s cheek when the boy asked and he was shocked once again because not only is Mia and the two assassins plus the vulture-king could sense or block his soul-sense! now Sun as well appears to have his own means to prevent the ability of soul-sense from fully seeping into his system. After sighing inwardly the boy quickly shrugged it off and mentally reminded himself to work harder on his soul-cultivation later because his current abilities are not up-to-par yet as it would seem from the current situation. Deciding to stop thinking negatively and to busy himself in checking this demonic-core instead. Lin concentrated his soul-sense almost entirely on this core which Sun grew inside his brain! It looks like a glowing red-pearl and the boy guessed that his beast-companion must’ve formed it after eating the mysterious object the mammoth had in its brain which turned-out to be this so-called demonic-core.

Now that he remembers! the tiger was acting kind-of strange that time and almost attacked Lin when it thought he would snatch its prize. Lin attributed Sun’s behavior that day to the two solo-battles his tiger had with the mammoth but it seems like his assumptions were completely wrong. It must’ve been Sun’s pure-instincts at work that time and the tiger just knew somehow the value of that prize and the difference it would make if Sun ate it! that prize turned-out to be something commonly known in this spirit-world as a demonic-core. In a few seconds Lin noticed that after these repetitive transformations which Sun did previously between his cat-form and tiger-form the majority of blood coursing in the tiger’s blood-stream ran in a much higher rate towards Sun’s brain at the expense of the rest of the body. All this blood specifically moved towards this red-pearl which centered itself in the middle of the tiger’s brain! and after circling-around it a couple of times this blood would slow down in its returning journey towards the heart. However this uncommon phenomenon quickly stopped happening and Sun’s body resumed its normal activity when the tiger hid back its core from Lin’s soul-sense.

“Buddy! I didn’t get a good look at it yet.”

“Whine...”

“I get it that you’re hungry, but I want to see how it works.”

“Purr...”

“Alright... you’ll get a huge cooked meal if you do two more transformations, I want to see what happens between this form and the original one.”

“Meow...”

“Deal then, try to take it slow so that I could get a clear view, and don’t hide your core because if you do then it wouldn’t count, then you’ll have to do it again. Understood?”

“Purr... Meow...”

“I’m ready whenever you are buddy.”

Sun had a sly glint in his eyes and Lin knew that his tiger was trying to strike a bargain. After finalizing his agreement with the tiger the boy left a tiny part of his soul-sense directed on Mia’s body and the remaining parts were focusing on Sun’s demonic-core! Lin wants to learn how Sun’s abilities work but he knew that he has to stay on-guard against this stranger whom he just met. He’s helping her to a meal and promised to act as her guardian while she rest and get some sleep and help her elude her pursuers while she does. But the fact remains that Mia could be lethally-dangerous if she wants and the way she spoke about killing seemed like something casual to her and the boy doesn’t want to take his chances and test his luck with her so soon. He should take his time and figure-out what her true character is like if she’s going to join him in his journey. If she isn’t going to choose to do so then she’s going to be nothing but someone he met in his way out from this land of forgetfulness and Lin is going to be appreciative enough to Mia since she taught him a few things already.

Once Sun started to change form from a cat to a tiger that mysterious pearl inside Sun's brain shined brighter in a red glow which caused the cells and bones to decompose and separate on the molecular-level! somehow that red-glow from that demonic core could break these biological parts into separate positions then transfer more biological-cells and intact-bone fragments from inside it miraculously like a black-hole which isn’t swallowing but spitting-out pieces of Sun’s original-body and these fragments would gather together and attach to form the tiger which the boy knew since day one of its life! Lin just stared wide-eyed at the tiger which is laying on its side and apparently gasping for breath because it looked tired but the grin on Sun’s mouth gave away how pleased he was. When Sun changed back into cat-form Lin noticed that all these unneeded body-cells and all the tiny dust-sized bone-fragments would be stored again inside that glowing red-pearl inside Sun's brain after the demonic-core shines once again.

Lin was shocked when he saw Sun's huge and solid bones fragment very easily and change into the tiny-size of a dust-particle and alternate from one size and density to the other! changing form in a few millionths of a second looked very easy when that red-pearl accomplished it and despite how impossible it may seem to Lin it happened right in front of his eyes and under the intense-gaze of his third-eye! the red-pearl -core- inside Sun's brain was impenetrable like a multi-layered fortress. Lin's soul-sense would always be stopped outside it and prevented from peeking at what’s inside it all the time no matter how hard the boy tried to send his soul-sense at it. Finally Lin had to stop when he felt extreme-unease and uncomfortable-ness coming from Sun who started to become anxious almost to the degree of shivering but the boy was truly amazed once again by the strangeness of this world since it has many mysteries which remain unexplainable to him in the scientific-sense of things. The great-sage’s definition of the word impossible has always been slightly different from other people in his previous life since he’s always aimed to keep a an open-mind when approaching the unknown! yet ever since he met with Jin Bao the very reasonable and open-minded great-sage which leaned heavily towards the scientific-orientation of things. Couldn’t help but change his perspective and view-point in this second life within this spirit-world and right now Lin is keeping his mind even more open to all possibilities and isn’t refusing or denying anything he sees or experience at all! the boy can only do that (debate the truth from falsehood) when he has in his arsenal the right amount of knowledge to back-up his arguments. But right now Lin admits that he knows almost nothing about this world save for the name of this land of forgetfulness and the rest is his extremely shallow knowledge about spirit-cultivation or body-refinement. His technique of soul-cultivation gave him a bit of information on some of the relatively common-knowledge which most inhabitants of this spirit-world already know and would call him ignorant since he knows too little! but even that tiny amount of common-knowledge was making the head of great-sage Lin hurt whenever he thought or attempted seek any logical explanation for the seemingly easiest piece of information to dissect in a scientific way. That was when he tried to figure-out how could the ring disappear with but a thought he makes! not to mention how could a person’s soul be trapped inside it or how could he himself sprout wings made from what would seem to be light. Just thinking about one of these things would give him a headache and Lin knew that he would’ve to tackle these issues someday because he knew his passion in life isn’t flying or travelling and sure as hell it isn’t to just leave things be without finding answers. Shaking his head from the daydreams which took him on a short mental-journey the boy turned his attention back towards the red demonic-core inside Sun's brain.

“It slightly changed in color! the core inside your head gained a bit of redness on its surface buddy, now its glow is brighter, how do you feel?”

“Yawn... rumble...”

“Nothing new huh... alright then, probably you shouldn’t change your form until you eat your fill. Come... last time I saw you this tired, was when you broke your own record in the test of stamina.”

Lin gave Mia a grateful look then gave his fatigued and exhausted beast-companion a few gentle pats before letting Sun rest wherever he wants and started to prepare some food for the tiger. Mia gained two points in favorability from Lin so far. First point was when the young-woman tried to warn Lin at the time Sun surprised him by suddenly changing form. Second point when Mia warned the boy of overstraining his tamed-beast when he kept ordering the tiger to change form repeatedly! especially after Lin confirmed the authenticity of the advice when noticed how Sun seemed to be very exhausted after alternating between the two forms a lot in that short time. Of course Sun too started to like this strange woman who made things easy for him. The kitten walked towards the table and didn’t reject Mia when she raised him up and sat him on her lap! Sun just laid on his side lazily and accepted the food Mia offered him with her hand.

“Aren’t you cute in that form... Ouch! you naughty thing, no hitting.”

“Meow!...”

“Hey Sun... be good!”

“Meow!...”

“Didn’t you say that you don’t understand my language? how could he understand me?”

“I don’t know what you said earlier, but I’m sure it ruffled his feathers the wrong way.”

“Oh!”

“Sun... she's trying to be friendly here, either accept her the way she’s and deal with it, or avoid the annoyance by keeping your distance from Mia.”

“You just said my name... what did you tell him?”

“To choose and decide if he wants to be your friend.”

Sun showed his set of small fangs intimidatingly to Mia and even scratched her finger when she started to ruffle his fur and speak in that annoying tune which he didn’t like the way it sounded despite understanding nothing of the things that were said by this young woman! the look on Mia's face after Sun did that was a lot like a little-girl who’s seeking consolation after she got her candy snatched away by another! Lin felt embarrassed by what happened and glared at Sun despite noticing that Mia's finger is absolutely fine but he still reproached his tiger a bit gently though after giving Mia an apologetic look.

“Doesn't he like it when I touch him then?”

Mia asked Lin after noticing that Sun had lowered his ears like a kid who got scolded by his father because he was being impolite to strangers.

“No... actually he likes it a lot when others scratch his body for him, it’s just that Sun doesn't like it when others treat him like a little-cub, I guess it wasn’t what you said but the way you said it.”

“But... He looks adorable, look at his tiny paws and these wide eyes! it's impossible to resist not hugging him if he’s within arm’s reach. Come... let me spoil you Sunny, here give me a kiss.”

“MEOW!...”

Mia seemed to ignore Lin's advice on how to interact with Sun and continued to speak in her foreign-language in a soft tone and Sun’s fur stood on end when she did and a chase began between the two around the table! the eyes of the young-woman glowed when she heard that Sun liked others to scratch his fur and she started to do just that when she succeeded in catching the kitten after it exhausted what remained of its exhausted stamina. However Sun accepted all the food she gave him while glaring at this woman who held him in captivity against his will. Lin shook his head while watching the drama between the two and cooked for his tamed-beast almost all the food which was stored in the box just one day earlier. Sun and Mia resumed their squabble in the form of a childish game of who can eat faster while Sun’s hot temper kept flaring-up after each childish-compliment the excited Mia gave the tiger.

“I’ll go back to see how far is the two assassins from us.”

“En... be careful and keep your distance.”

“Got it... try not to anger my friend too much.”

“Tehe... I can’t promise you anything, he looks so amusing when he’s agitated.”

“Sigh...”

The boy shook his head when he saw the young-woman shrug his request and climb-over the table to stuff her face in the kitten’s plate to snatch a large chunk of meat and chewed it in glee while enjoying the sight of Sun’s angry expression when he attempted to defend his share and intimidated this woman who insisted on provoking him! Lin spread his wings and flew back on the same route they travelled before to confirm the current location of the two men in black-hooded capes and their scorpion-tailed Cerberus.

“According to their travelling-speed, these pursuers will be here in roughly twenty-minutes or so, what do you want to do next? rest some more before dealing with them, or...”

Lin quickly returned and asked because from what he can tell by looking at this Mia with just his eyes she seems to be quite okay after the short nap she took and the satisfying meal she just had! the reason he isn’t so sure if the young-woman is indeed okay to tackle that trouble of hers is because whenever the boy tried to probe her inner-body with his ability of soul-sense just like he does to Sun whenever Lin wants to confirm the physical-status of the tiger. The boy would feel like there’s countless needles pointed at his third-eye and threatening to prickle and pierce it every time he tried to invade the young-woman's body to check her innards for any internal-injuries. It was like there’s an aura taking the shape of countless needles is covering the young-woman's body protectively like a porcupine! when Lin scanned Mia with his soul-sense that aura always prevented him from looking beyond the layer of clothes she wore. Indeed his gut-feeling was soon confirmed when Lin attempted to penetrate that strange layer around Mia’s body by focusing his soul-force on a single spot according to the method which next soul-ability on the soul-strengthening technique instructed! that ability always left him with a strong headache and the boy didn’t attempt to use it in a long time already and he was quite curious to know if his current repertoire of soul-force is sufficient to use that new ability. However once he activated the ability the boy was met with a severe headache and felt his third-eye being under a great strain and pressure when the concentrated soul-force was channeled through it. Gritting his teeth and trying to endure the extreme pain while seeing if that mysterious-aura which protects this young-woman could be overcome with this method. But the piercing pain also intensified against the stronger soul-force from that incomplete-ability when Lin tried to look at Mia’s inner-body and he had to stop the ability when the pain became very much for him to endure anymore! a similar result happened with the two assassins from the assassin-guild before whom Lin was incapable of seeing their looks. But the cause was different with the two assassins even if the boy didn’t try to use that new ability against them. Lin felt the existence of a unique type of energy inside Mia’s body which isn't hindered by whatever suppressive-effect this land of forgetfulness has to do with spirit-cultivators. While the two assassins relied on what would seem to be their strange black-hooded cloaks to block Lin's soul-sense. Both methods from Mia and the assassins worked effectively in blocking Lin's soul-force despite when he tried to concentrate and increase the strength of his ability or use a new ability all-together! and his first lesson which he probably wouldn’t forget is : "soul-force isn't invincible and there's many ways to counter it... both humans and beasts proved that they could disguise and hide things from soul-methods or counter it like Mia’s aura did." and that’s why Lin had to ask to know from Mia how’s her current condition is because unlike when the boy is dealing with his tiger he can’t decide for the young-woman. When he’s dealing with Sun then after using his soul-sense to scan the tiger’s body once Lin would be able to confirm how prepared his tamed-beast is before making the decision himself! but he couldn’t confirm Mia’s condition by using his sight alone since this young-woman told the boy earlier that her struggle has been going since two years ago. That kind of accumulated fatigue is immense and tend to leave hidden effects on the physique and a much worse effect on the mentality.

“Ching!...”

Just taking one look at the sword which Mia kept by her side all the time and Lin could tell what she must’ve gone through! this young-woman must’ve experienced many battles because the sword-edge has so many traces of these battles. The sword is already indented and has so many parts missing on it when these battles caused them to be chipped-off despite how much Mia tried her best to take care of her sword by keeping its edge sharp and straight. The proof is how the young-woman worked on sharpening the sword continuously and diligently after she ate her meal and had enough fun teasing the cat. Mia was completely absorbed in that grinding-process of the sword-edge against the wet-stone between her knees which doesn’t look compatible for a delicate-looking woman like her to do! but the sight had a certain charm to it and Lin felt like this is Mia’s true character and not the playful-one which she portrayed before.

“I should rest. One day of rest will be enough for me to recover... I think. It’s about time for me to fight back, I’m sick of this gloomy land already. Sigh... I miss Xiaoxi.” Mia looked at her dilapidated-sword then shook her head because this sword used to be a good sword but it wasn't a spirit-tool! to face two assassins and one scorpion-tailed Cerberus which is a beast in the devil-beast realm without her mother's sword is almost impossible. Fighting them while using any other spirit-weapon of a lower rank than her mother’s sword would make it a hard and risky battle. To face these three enemies while using no spirit-tools or spirit-weapons and being armed with nothing but a mortal-weapon isn’t impossible anymore but plain-suicide! since Mia is wearing no protective spirit-items or tools at all. Her motion of grinding the sword-edge against the wet-stone stopped and she looked up towards Lin and asked : “I can't face the three of them on my own, will you help me?”

Mia knew that right now she’s being selfish when she asked the boy this question. But her enemies are not to be trifled with and her own life is at risk and in this desperate-situation she met Lin. If this isn’t her being favored by the heavens then she’s doomed to fall at the hands of the assassins. The young-woman vowed inwardly to herself that if the boy agreed to assist her then she’s going to repay this favor a hundred-fold later. But the facts remain that these two assassins are dangerous and the boy might be hurt by them if he accepted to engage them with her especially after these two lunatics entered the great-space barrier while being fully-armed in top-tier spirit-tools! weapons and armors covered the bodies of the two assassins despite them knowing full-well that all of these items will end-up being ruined if the assassins dared to stay here in the land of forgetfulness for long. Mortal-weapons and armors which lack spirit-energy are the safest tools to be used in this land of forgetfulness. Rumor has it that even spirit-tools which surpassed the spirit-rank and reached the inheritance-rank would gradually weaken and lose their spirituality over time before dropping-back to the spirit-rank then gradually be completely ruined to become nothing but metal-scrap in this land until they become even weaker than the most average weapon or armor in the mortal-rank! Mia wasn't privy on the reason why this happens to the weapons and armors of spirit-cultivator’s in this land or why this strange effect wouldn't harm space-rings or other storage-items despite mostly considered by the majority of cultivators as being a whole rank lower than inheritance-tools in most cases. Because storage-items are usually rarer than attack, defense, and support spirit-items.

The attribute of space is required to make any space-tool and you need to have the affinity and be talented in the element of space-energy to make a space-tool or a storage-item. Or to receive the help from one who cultivates the space-element to create what you require for you. If you are an accomplished forger yourself but have no talent in the space-element then the space-tool you create isn’t likely to be of a higher-level or rank than the creation of someone else who’s less accomplished in the profession of forging but has the affinity for the space-attribute and the sufficient talent in manipulating space-energy! simply because his natural-affinity in cultivating the space-element plus the talent would re-compensate the weak-point and disadvantage of being a lower-ranked forger. Even if you're a much-better forger and have assistance from a space-energy cultivator and said helper is a better and advanced spirit-cultivator as well! the end-result of the two counterparts are most likely going to end-up being the same because when you forge a space-tool while handling both tasks yourself. Forging the structure and infusing the required space-energy within the tool or item! you will react faster in a much better cohesion and ease than two separate people when one of them is being responsible for watching-over the materials during the forging-process and the other person is responsible for keeping watch on the input of space-energy within their creation. But if the number of people who are both talented in the space-element and the profession of forging were counted then you'll be lucky if one or two could be found after looking in a hundred-billion of spirit-cultivators. Or once in every one-million space-energy cultivators! and that's because of the rarity of the space-element and its elevated rank among the many other attributes and elements. Space-energy is a superior-realm energy and is two whole and entire realms or ranks higher than the five-elements of the basic-rank! which are the elements of fire, earth, water, wood, and gold. Space-element is one entire rank or realm higher than the high-rank elements and the most famous five-elements in that attribute-realm are the element of wind, ice, lightening, darkness, and light. Of course this attribute-realm has other elements of different characteristics which share this realm with wind and ice and the three other famous elements but their ranking within the elements of the high-realm is considered lower than these famous five (high-rank) elements by the majority of cultivators. Space-energy is an element in the superior-realm alongside the elements of time, life, and death! this superior-realm in the attribute-ranks has only four known elements unlike the two realms before it the basic and high-realms. The records spoke vaguely and mentioned three or four other elements who should be added to this attribute-rank even if they’re weaker. Their reason for that argument is because of the superior-realm itself since amongst its four-elements only death-element could be considered an offensive element amongst the four acknowledged-attributes in that ranking. The three elements of space-time and life are almost purely supportive in nature and two of them lacked the offensive-edge like fire-element and its explosive-nature from the basic-realm or lightning and its breakneck-speed and the shocking spontaneous and instant burst of power from the high-realm! Space can be used in constraining the enemy and fleeing or attacking but to use the space-element offensively would be very demanding on the comprehension-abilities of the user. That is if we counted how high the previous-requirements on comprehension-abilities to spirit-cultivate the space-energy to be the average requirement then to use space-energy offensively would be asking for talented cultivators with the above-average type of talent in the element of space. Maybe one or two at best could be found within every batch of ten-million cultivators of the space-element who are capable of using space-energy offensively without embarrassing themselves and shaming the excellent reputation of their affinity which is in a pretty advanced grade amongst the attribute-ranks.

Upward in the attribute-rank would be the realm of peak-energy and its two pillars! destruction and creation. Destruction is argued by many to be the element which any accomplished spirit-cultivator can use if they succeeded in fusing both elements of fire and lightening into a spirit-energy of a much higher purity and might while others said it’s the elements of wind and ice instead but all agreed that the core-teaching of attaining this peak-rank element is by taking this new element which said-cultivator succeeded in fusing to the highest degrees of purity and the limits of refinement! it would be even better if said-cultivator continued to upgrade and improve their understanding of the difficult dao of destruction after learning new daos and deepening their understandings in them. Then they try to fuse it with the energy which was already refined within the dantian to seek the deadliest kind of spirit-energy that is both lethal when it comes to explosiveness and domineering when it comes to suppression. Then the addition of the superior-element of death is a must to the equation because it would give birth to the most dreadful characteristic of the peak-element of destruction and its greatest advantage over the lower ranked elements! nothing stands in the face of the energy of destruction even the spirit-energy of space and time can't contain its destructive effect and has to bow-down to its might. Even someone very accomplished in both spirit-energies of space-time can't contain the attack from another spirit-cultivator who’s a whole realm lower in spirit-cultivator if he's attacked by destruction-energy. Its higher-grade in the pyramid of element-ranks enables the destruction-element to "transcend" realms which is the first element to be discovered to have this visible characteristic and clear advantage over all the documented elements!

Creation is the exact opposite to destruction because to attain it then you need to seek harmony and peace. Some sought the fusion of the elements of water and earth then mixing wood afterwards while others sought the fusion of the elements of water and earth then lightening! but the very famous combination is the validated and proofed to actually be a correct path of cultivating the creation-dao to the peak is the cultivation-technique of the elves which requires the user to cultivate the five-elements of the basic-rank to the level of sublimation in each dao then fuse the five-energies together. However doing such a hard task is only the first step in the method which the large majority of spirit-cultivators wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from cringing when they think of it. The light-element has to be cultivated in the second step and to a quite an advanced purity and refinement too. Then the purified and refined light-energy must be add to the balanced-fusion of energy which was previously five separate energies from the five-elements in the basic-rank! doing so proved to allow the user to gain instant understanding of the basics of the dao of life and controlling the life-element and its energy becomes very natural and easy while further advancements are said to be a cause for jealousy from those rare few who are born with the affinity for the life-element. Unfortunately despite the great effort the journey still lack a step which require effort to acquire the creation-element but it led to the opportunity to understand the true dao of creation which is enough for many to seek this path despite the hardship.

Legend has it that only the elven-queen was able to learn how to use creation-energy using this method in the recorded history of the spirit-world while the barbarian Emperor was the only person who managed to learn how to use destruction-energy. The rest of seniors in the records of history who used either of the two kinds of peak-energies be that destruction or creation elements were very blessed and fortunate to be born with immense amount of latent-potential and the inherent-ability to use peak-rank elements once they awakened their martial-spirits! in fifty-million years of recorded history there’s only five users mentioned to be able to use creation-energy naturally while the users mentioned to be able to use destruction-energy on the other hand were a bit more and the total number of them is eight. Only thirteen-people were born blessed enough to be able to use a peak-grade element from the very start of their journey to cultivate spirit-energy in the span of time which stretched fifty-million years. The scarcity makes it possible to happen once every ten-million years or so in the spirit-world! Add the elven-queen and the barbarian-emperor to these formidable thirteen-people and the result is the strongest fifteen-ancients of all time. All of these great-seniors except for the barbarian-emperor who stopped in the realm of spirit-emperor in spirit-energy cultivation while the remaining fourteen successfully ascended to the realm of spirit-sovereign but the barbarian-emperor was just as nightmarish of an opponent to his enemies and a genius cultivator like the rest of his peers of peak-element cultivators because of his attainments in the system of body-refinement.

On-top of the element’s ranking-pyramid is the eternal-realm with the sole and undisputed element of chaos occupying the whole grade by itself without any valid information on how to cultivate it at all! whether or not there's another element capable of sharing this rank with chaos-energy or even if there's a president or possibility of someone being born with the ability to use chaos-energy naturally is unknown. Chaos! that would be the nightmare to every cultivator no matter how high their cultivation-realm is. No-matter who even if it’s a spirit-sovereign in the highest point of the sovereign-realm if such a spirit-cultivator met a foe who (somehow) could use chaos-energy against them then they’ll think of fleeing first thing if they aren't spirit-cultivators of the space-time elements or didn't have an inheritance-tool of the space-time affinity which can help contain the extremely-lethal chaos-energy! despite being that terrifying to spirit-cultivators they'll still fight tooth and nail to find a chance to cultivate nearby any safely contained source of chaos-energy. The passive-effect of suppression which this chaos-element has on the rest of the elements is a great help to spirit-cultivators who seek to refine their energy and control no matter how high in attribute-rank is their elemental-affinity it can't exceed chaos-energy or suppress it no matter how refined the energy of the other element is! but nothing is perfect in this spirit-world and each element has its advantages and disadvantages. Space-time energies are capable of isolating chaos-energy. Yes the space-energy and time-energy separately and the fusion of both in the space-time energy proved to affect chaos-energy despite these superior-rank elements being vulnerable to destruction-energy which is a peak-rank and a grade lower than eternal-rank energy it is a fact that these three superior-rank energies can affect an element on the eternal-rank quite effectively. But that would come on the expense of a lot of space-time energy compared to the amount of chaos-energy that needs to be isolated of course. Ten-times worth of space-time energies is required to slow or block chaos-energy or a hundred-times worth of space-time energy is required to contain the chaos-energy in a barrier.

That sums the grade of elements into these attribute-ranks which are : "Basic, high, superior, peak, and eternal."

Now to have a talented forger who’s blessed with the required talent in the space-dao to create a space-tool or a storage-item in the inheritance-rank is something which is way beyond rare to happen in this spirit-world because the forger needs to be a spirit-cultivator with supreme abilities in the space-energy and extreme-talents in a superior-element and have peak-grade talent in the profession of spirit-tool forging! Mia can count on a single hand the number of inheritance-rank space-tools which are known to exist in the spirit-world because there’s only three. Three inheritance-tools were recorded to be actually created and made by the method of "forging" and a single one of these items is recorded to be an "awakened-artifact" which gained its own soul after one of its owners sacrificed his spirit-cultivation. But records of that storage-item which is called the "ring of origin" is that it was long lost somehow and disappeared from the hands of the unfortunate fourteenth-pope of the church of light two-thousand years ago.

That man will surely be shocked if he knew that Lin and his twin sister push him down from the second-place on the ranking-list of the quickest martial-spirit awakening and the zone of the top-three to fourth-place! the so-called peerless-genius which is the current junior sect-master of the heart-seeking sect and the jewel in their eyes who got cruelly pushed-down from first-place to third-place? Dan Pengfei would definitely be startled if he knew the information which Mia knows right now. If only Mia would know that the same storage-item which is called the ring of origin and the one Andreas the fourteenth-pope lost acouple-thousand years ago is currently being worn by this six years old boy. Then she would've sighed while wishing if she could pat the pope on his shoulder consolingly and say : "Poor you, not only did he take your peak-grade storage-item, which is the only space-tool of the three inheritance-rank artifacts to actually reach the peak-grade! but also pushed you down with the assistance of his twin-sister to fourth-place on the ranking-list of martial-spirit awakening, here... don’t be sad, you’re still the fastest person." the cold and apathetic-man who’s acknowledged by all including her father the sect-master as the fastest person he ever met and one of the dangerous few because Andreas doesn’t hesitate no-matter the cost if it means achieving his aim in the end. Mia would be sure that even such person would be angered to the degree of embarrassing himself if these news reached him. After all she herself was pushed-down from third-place to fifth-place by the pair of kids. Still if Mia had known all that information she wouldn't have dared to leave Lin after doing something shocking! Because the awakened-soul of that certain artifact has a reputation of being unpredictable when it comes to manipulating people.

“Chiiing...”

While using the wet surface of a flat stone to sharpen her damaged sword Mia remembered how she fled the two assassins unhesitatingly towards the boundaries of the great-space barrier once she saw the spirit-tool one of these assassins held in his hand! because the young-woman knew that she wouldn't be able to escape them if she tried and fighting these two right after experiencing the trial of the drowned-realm and two fights with Katherine plus the scheme which she couldn’t escape falling in it. Since fighting in a state of being exhausted and wounded will only aggravate her wounds and further exhaust her. The saintess choose to fight on her own terms inside the land of forgetfulness while all parties are suffering from the same suppression. Let the foolish ones who dare bring spirit-tools inside the battle-zone see their belongings gradually become corroded with time. That’s why she didn’t make-up her mind to end this grudge with these assassins until it’s two years later since facing the two assassins outside the great-space barrier without knowing what kind of trump cards they have in-stored for her would be dangerous! not to mention that both of them are assassins in the spirit-tyrant realm and with their tyrant-ability to step on elements to fly it would make chasing her and avoiding her attacks extremely easy. While she's only a spirit-cultivator in the realm of a spirit-grandmaster then to engage these two in a serious battle of life and death the Mia would be forced to resort to using a spirit-tool to assist her to fly. That comes at the expense of burning more of spirit-energy which can be a factor disadvantaging the young-woman if the fight was prolonged. Assassin from the assassins-guild are known for the efficiency and cruelty of all their members and certainly these two would notice that gap and aim for delaying Mia until her spirit-energy is completely exhausted before finishing the job. Their tests to rank-up within the guild would always be against foes a few grades or an entire realm higher than them when it comes to cultivation! to test the capabilities and assassination skills of its members the assassin-guild would ask their members to kill three different cultivators with higher attainments just to make sure their members would be able to finish their missions even if the target is somehow met with a sudden fortune or opportunity to raise their cultivation-realm or grade. Mia wasn’t that fortunate and was instead wounded badly when she came face-to-face with the two assassins! at that time when she exited the drowned-realm the young-woman was exhausted and suffering from the wounds she accumulated then the saintess was sneak-attacked by the holy-daughter of the church of light Katherine. Fortunately she escaped a mortal wound after using the strongest defensive spirit-tool in her arsenal to ward-off that attack. But Mia's defensive spirit-tool which was one of her trump cards became damaged beyond repair afterwards. Of course the holy-daughter Katherine lost a much-better offensive spirit-tool which was a single-time use spirit-item after her sneak-attack on Mia failed. Being Mia's rival and the current holder of the sixth-place in the spirit-awakening ranking-list with a record of four years and seven months plus thirty-days Katherine always hated Mia especially since their records were separated by two days! when Mia tried to use an advanced-space talisman to return to the seamless-sword sect and head for the church of light later with her father to seek an explanation for the offense their holy-daughter Katherine committed against her the saintess of the seamless-sword sect. Katherine laughed like a maniac -which was unlike her usual attitude of fake-gentleness and compassion towards others- when she saw Mia activate her advanced-space talisman and brought-out a spirit-tool from her space-ring. While being covered in the overflowing-energy emitted by the space-talisman in her hand Mia's eyes widened in fear when she saw what kind of spirit-tool is in Katherine’s hand and the saintess gritted her teeth and tried to exit the space-formation underneath her despite knowing the danger which could happen if her time-energy failed to block the turbulent and unstable space-energy from the talisman in her hand. Yet the young-woman was a step too-late in the end because Katherine had already activated the spirit-tool in her hands before Mia escaped the small space-formation which worked on teleporting the person who activates the advanced-space talisman. Mia was locked in place and forced to wait inside the space-formation until her talisman teleported her but not to her original-destination! holy-daughter Katherine was holding a spirit-tool which is without any kind of use offensively or defensively whatsoever because that tool is purely supportive and only works if paired-with the element of space. World-stabilizing needle is the name of that spirit-tool which explains the use of this tool exactly because it can stabilize and accumulate the space-element and forcefully guide or control and even manipulate if need be for harnessing that energy. Since Mia was inside the space-formation of that advanced-space talisman then Katherine can easily redirect the saintess’s destination forcefully against her will because the young-woman wasn't able to control the space-formation anymore but the holy-daughter was! manipulating or harnessing the space-energy within the talisman to strengthen her world-stabilizing needle was at her finger-tips and that sense of being in control made the holy-daughter cackle in mad laughter.

'She'll need the help of at least four more people using four more world-stabilizing needles to trap me in this formation, she can’t stop me from leaving on her own.' is what Mia thought in the beginning but Katherine’s scheme ran deeper than she expected! because the holy-daughter was practically throwing away her bright-future and casting her lots in the hands of fate.

World-stabilizing needles can be used solo or linked in pairs and would only grow in power with more needles to create a web of space-energy. That collection of space-energy could be amassed and connected to other world-needles no matter how far is the distance and rumors say that every teleportation-formation in the spirit-world has a world-stabilizing needle in the center of its foundation! but using only one needle Katherine could only guide someone else’s teleportation to another needle and that’s why Mia was still calm after finding out that she can’t exit the formation. The saintess thought that holy-daughter is seeking to vent her frustration and would only mess-up the destination of Mia’s teleportation and let her suffer from finding her way back to the seamless-sword sect. When she was teleported Mia found the two assassins holding another needle and waiting for her wounded-self while being armed to the teeth and the price she had to pay just to escape the two-men and reach this land of forgetfulness was many single-use defensive items and spirit-tools. Finally after a night of horror the saintess reached the shore of this land which she kept hearing many stories and gossiping-rumors about countless people who got lost forever in it since ancient history.

It was either Mia tries her luck in escaping from her pursuers by using the suppression this cursed land of forgetfulness has on spirit-cultivators to elude these two assassins or try to bait them into dying at the hands of some beast-hordes or the countless savages which roam this land first before leaving! but the saintess had to do something very important first before crossing the great-space barrier which covers this land. Mia had to store all her spirit-equipment and tools in the space-ring otherwise her items would degrade in rank over time and lower in level and quality after losing the spiritual-energy which happens to any spirit-artifact being exposed to chaotic-energy in the land of forgetfulness. Yes she had an inheritance-rank spirit-tool one being a weapon specifically a sword which is the strongest spirit-weapon the young-woman has on her. However that one originally belonged to Mia’s mother! her late mother who died when she was about the same age as Lin. To avoid any possibility or chance of damage or negative-effect occurring to that precious sword. Mia placed it too in her space-ring alongside the other items and armed herself with this mortal-rank sword instead.

Mia's mother sacrificed all her spirit-cultivation once to help save her husband during one journey in the deep territories of beast mountains and doing such a dangerous action means she’s going to live as a cripple for the rest of her life afterwards! others won't be as weak as Mia's mother after sacrificing their cultivation with too little lifespan left in their bodies because Mia's mother used what remained of her life-force to protect the fetus with the remaining vitality which she had. That fetus was Mia who just formed in her belly a few days earlier after a long wait. Then the decisive woman directed the majority of her life-force and vitality that she had left in her body towards Mia in the womb until she gave birth to her! doing such a thing meant opening the doors to your core-vitality and life-force to seep-out from the physical-vessel endlessly with time until it is all scattered away which means death. After that incident her mother was always very weak and feeble. In Mia’s memories her mother would stay in her sickness bed for months after experiencing a very normal cold which unhealthy mortals can handle pretty easily. Her father one the other hands would be mostly busy asking around and sending requests for better spirit-alchemists from the alchemist-brotherhood or skilled mortal-physicians and apothecaries from everywhere to come and see if they could help his wife regain her health and vitality which kept fading and degrading daily. The reward for whomever proves capable of treating his wife's illness reached an astronomical number when Mia's mother was in her final days. All of her father's wealth was put on the table! the wealth of a regular spirit-sovereign would make every cultivator in the whole spirit-world go crazy already. Not to mention the wealth of the current sect-master of the seamless-sword sect and the person entitled sword-sovereign. One of the five great-sects sect-master's wealth made the other four sect-masters of the five great-sects do their best trying to heal Mia's mother themselves or find people who could in hopes of acquiring this amazing fortune. Unfortunately Mia's mother ended-up succumbing to her incurable-illness and death welcomed her with open arms later. The sect-master of the seamless-sword sect was devastated when he couldn't help his woman live no matter how much he tried to prevent it from happening. Now all he has left from his beloved wife is a second inheritance-tool for his sect to enjoy and a six years old daughter with the highest-grade of latent-potential and talent for spirit-cultivation and sword-intent! Mia didn't disappoint him by gaining the recognition of the soul from the inheritance-tool her mother left behind and soon afterwards she became the saintess of the seamless-sword sect after successfully learning the core techniques to a very advanced stage. Mia's very close resemblance of her mother's looks when she grew-up especially her smile which would always make her father daze and daydream while remembering his days of happiness with her mother. That's why she always felt like her father was kind of avoiding her intentionally most of the time because she easily distracted him. However Mia always felt his deep love and care for her because whenever she’s harmed her father would fly into an instant rage and the domineering-aura of a sovereign with deep attainments in both sword-intent and spirit-cultivation would make the entire sect tremble in fear or stand at attention with anxiety and worry for their lives and safety. One time the young-woman got hurt by a senior-brother from her sect during a friendly-duel and her father acted shamelessly by using one finger to beat that young man despite being six whole realms his junior! yes her father the sect-master didn't kill her senior-brother but Mia's father made sure to teach him and the whole sect a very valuable lesson.

“Bully my daughter? humph...”

That was the only thing Mia's father said as he stood straight in the arena under the sight of every gawking and disbelieving-eye of every seamless-sword sect member! their "sword-sovereign" and the strongest sword-intent user in the spirit-world by the unanimous recognition of the strongest cultivators in this era. Bullied a junior of his sect who’s six whole realms lower than him in spirit-cultivation and behind him in sword-intent by at least a couple millennia while using one of fingers to embarrass this junior who dared hurt his baby-girl! his pinky finger was used as a sword to exchange moves with this very daring junior to give him a lesson. Why would he go that far? because this junior was older than his daughter by four years already and had higher spirit-cultivation too which was exactly three sub-realms or an entire grade in the spirit-master realm. He’s just a spirit-master brat yet dares to wound his daughter? this sect master will personally show the world what might happen to those who bully his daughter to give a clear example. Shamelessness beyond limits was seen from the sect-master that day but Mia’s eyes couldn’t hold-back the tears which accumulated and made her vision fuzzy and the extreme warmness which she felt in her chest that day was one of a kind.

“No... I can’t put myself at risk, sorry.”

“I see... can’t you help me with anything other than being my guardian and scout?”

“all I can offer you right now, is a chance to corner these two men and their Cerberus.”

“How? and Sun should help me if you won’t do anything yourself.”

“Sun will join if I decide that it’s safe, this condition is non-negotiable. The vulture-king and its committee can be used to ambush the two assassins if we lure both parties to the right location, and the rest will be up to you to handle however you see fit after they finish their fight with the vultures.”

“Can you do that?”

“I believe I can do it, yes.”

“Really!”

“You still need your day of rest first though, now... are you sure you want to do this?”

“Hell yeah! let’s do it your way.”

“Then it's settled, Sun will carry you while you rest, afterwards we'll finish dealing with these people if everything goes according to plan.”

Lin awoke Mia from her daydreams with his refusal, Mia pouted her lips and nodded silently to indicate her understanding then the conversation through the soul-link transmission made her very excited.

“Let's go Sun, we need to restock our supplies too.”

Lin clapped once after Mia answered and started packing his items back in place inside the supply-box. Then Mia pouted her lips again when Sun jumped from her palms and reverted back to his tiger-form to carry her on his back. But she knew that without Sun to carry her while she sleep then there would be no use in waiting for a day to face the two assassins. Quite honestly the young-woman was very sick of running around smelling like a dirty-pig and looking like a beggar on the side of the streets with her current attire.

--------

Twelve-minutes after Sun and Lin left their campsite with Mia laying-down on her belly and enjoying the texture of the tiger's soft fur on her dirty face. Soundlessly like specters two people draped in black hooded-cloaks appeared flanking a five meter tall and three-headed dog-like creature which has forked tongues flickering in and out of its three opened jaws and three pairs of brown reptilian-eyes scanning the area while its three stingers danced in the air. The black beast seemed to fuse with the darkness of the night just like its two human-companions! the Cerberus thick-legs shone with greenish-color which glinted from the scales covering it and each of its segmented-tails ended with one hooked-stinger which has eerie spine-chilling purple tips curved ominously in a strange shape. If stung with them the hook-shaped stingers would help this Cerberus drag the prey towards its body then these four long and deep-green colored fangs on each head would bite the prey and keep it close for the thick pillar-like legs to start tearing with these sharp looking black claws.

“Just how did she manage to get her hand on that beast? it looks like she tamed it without a fight. Wait! these marks belong to a kid and they match the marks we found earlier, both of them are keeping their distance from one another, they’re not friends or enemies as it would seem. She ate and rested here for a while and they both left just a short while ago! old Weisheng... do you want to rest for a while? this little-bitch never stopped running for two years, and I don’t think she will now after receiving help, just you wait until I get my hands on you saintess of the seamless-sword sect, I'll enjoy slitting your throat slowly after ravaging you to my heart's content.”

One of the assassins spoke with his deeply depressing voice after taking a quick glance around the area before pulling back the hood on his head. The face which appeared is of a male who’s thirty-something years old and is a notably-handsome man with an irritating smirk on his chiseled-face which has an expression that spoke the word : "Narcissistic!"

“No... this might complicate things for us actually, if that kid led her to a big gathering of strong savages and she managed to find a suitable helper to resist us, then that girl could deploy some trick to delay us before she escapes, or risk it all on a suicide attack and leave it all to fate. Xiangming... don't forget that our contract is only to do our best to finish the saintess in three years while doing everything we got to stop her from returning to her sect, or try to keep her lost in this abominable land forever if she decided to escape in this direction. If we fail to do either of these two things, then be prepared to be chased by sword-sovereign himself and the rest of the members from her seamless-sword sect if our identities were somehow discovered. Now that the saintess has made the right decision and dragged us in here after her, she has us on a disadvantageous-position instead, since all of us -including her- and your Cerberus are unable to use our spirit-energy at all! while she has access to her sword-intent both of us aren't weapon-cultivators. Thankfully she didn't want to ruin her inheritance-weapon and stored her heirloom-sword and all of her other spirit-items away before entering the great-space formation. Now we only have two advantages over the saintess which are, your Cerberus, and the spirit-tools we took from holy-daughter Katherine, if our spirit-tools doesn’t hold strong until the duration of our contract is over, then this little-demon of a woman can flip the tables on us in a heartbeat! so you better not lower your guard until you actually slit her throat, after doing that you can ravage her to your heart-content, I really don't have time for these games of yours anyway.”

“You have time to play with plants instead... I know.”

“These medicinal-ingredients are vital for my research, of course your Cerberus's contribution won't be up for the wind, Like we agreed before... after concocting that "swan-pill" for you. You'll give me your "tyrannical-gauntlets!" honestly... I don't know why do you insist on keeping them with you and not selling them, despite the pair being very useless to you and unsuitable for your fighting-style.”

The other assassin turned-out to be a very old-looking man with a head full of white hair and a face full of wrinkles! but his squinted-eyes were making it hard for the younger narcissistic-assassin which is called Xiangming to see his partner’s pupils or where his eyes are looking. Frowning deeply when he saw his ugly and old-looking partner dare show his old face in the presence of his own beautiful and impeccable-face! Xiangming just nodded then spoke his cynical reply and turned to pat his Cerberus’s rough green scales but he was in fact avoiding the unpleasant sight of this old Weisheng's face and ignored whatever the man said to justify himself because he didn’t care about the man’s frustrations and ambitions. They both quickly continued to hunt after Mia silently while guessing who might that new kid with the beast be. Weisheng and Xiangming were both after two entirely different goals from this mission and they both knew from the very beginning that after they’re done their interactions might actually be cut clean.

Old Weisheng is not talented in spirit-cultivation and despite being more than one-hundred and thirty years old the man is still only a sixth-stage spirit-tyrant which makes his talent in the system of spirit-energy cultivation mediocre at best! however his accomplishments were mostly focused on the profession of alchemy especially the dao of poison. Weisheng is a very talented and gifted poison-specialist and a cultivator of the earth-element. By using his variety of poisons in many different circumstances alongside his gravitational abilities of the earth-attribute made Weisheng a moving poisonous and deadly-quagmire. Because once you're trapped in his techniques then it's just a matter of time until you're dead by the suffocating pressure and suppression of the crushing-gravity while constantly being weakened by the deadliest of poisons! That method only works on targets in the tyrant-realm or lower of course. Weisheng's approach would change to keeping maximum-distance from his target while trying his best to finish the mission with poisons in case he’s having to deal with a cultivator in the spirit-lord realm or a comparable realm from the other systems but he normally do his best to avoid those. Weisheng's rank within the assassins-guild is an eight-starred spirit-gold assassin and his affinity for the earth-element played a major part in the man’s style and tendency to manipulate the terrain to his advantage first before battle and laying-down the perfect ambush which would be mostly loaded with venomous-vapors and wicked-poisons for his unfortunate target. Once his prey is successfully-infected with his poisons Weisheng would then activate his gravity-field ability to sap-away at the power of his targets and weaken their resistance while increasing the potency of his lethal-cocktails until they're no longer capable of retaliating against him at all! as a person with average talent Weisheng enjoyed killing these geniuses because he felt satisfaction and a strange feeling of release to many unhealthy-emotions which got stifled deep down during the years and were hid behind his creased face. But this old man Weisheng is and has always been the extremely patient-type of people and last time he earned a star on his cloak is long before Xiangming was even born! and that’s why he always kept Mia on the run and aimed to exhaust her fighting-spirit first because if that didn’t happen then their rotting-weapons and armors wouldn’t help them against her.

While Xiangming is a fairly talented loose-cultivator who joined the assassins-guild by chance-encounter with one of the grand-elders fifteen years ago and succeeded in rising in rank after completing one dangerous suicide-mission after another like a complete maniac! the handsome man was and always is after fame and popularity in the spirit-world among cultivators and dreams of the time his name would resound in all corners of the four continents. Xiangming is a thirty-three years old and hates two things in life which are ugliness in all forms and any sort of person and especially cultivators who are more famous or prettier than him! males or females were alike in Xiangming's narcissistic-eyes since only him rightfully stays as the undisputed-champion in all standards of beauty. Every contestant should go die before his paramount-looks which were the delusions of his own sick-mind's making. The younger assassin is blessed with dual-attributes of wind and lightning elements! one of which is famous for its spontaneous-movement and bursts of explosiveness and the other element is famous for its agility and freedom. But both are leaning heavily towards the word speed and both are high-grade elements on the attribute-ranks. He's an extremely fast cultivator who slits the throats of his victims before they catch a glimpse of his after-image! the target would slump-down to the ground in a buddle of their own blood once an opportunity becomes available for Xiangming to make a move. Even-though old Weisheng is three stages higher than Xiangming who's only a third-stage spirit-tyrant. He wouldn't dare stop using his ability of gravity-field if he knew that this sissy-boy is gunning for his head.

Once Xiangming learned of a certain mission-requirements he went to this stubborn and ugly old man who’s scared of his own shadow and asked him to concoct a poisonous pill for him which is a very high-ranked pill at the eighth-level on the alchemy-rank. When Xiangming finally found the chance to create the swan-pill he didn't hesitate to relinquish his tyrannical-gauntlets in exchange for a chance to bypass the guild-ranking of a spirit-gold assassin and rise to the spirit-pearl rank or maybe the rank of spirit-ruby if his performance was grand enough! right now Xiangming is a just a three-star assassin in the spirit-gold rank. To raise a single star in the guild's ranking would require him to take out three-cultivators in the spirit-tyrant realm who are at least in the sixth-stage. That is a grade higher than his own and the guild usually throw no weaklings in face of its members. That’s how the assassins-guild harshly demanded from its members to be always looking for stronger and harder opponents if these assassins seek higher position in the guild’s ranking! but if someone in the spirit-tyrant realm like Xiangming managed to pull it off and kill a spirit-cultivator in the spirit-king realm then he's certainly going to receive the acknowledgement from the guild’s management-class no matter what.

The ranks within the assassins-guild are : "Bronze, silver, gold, spirit-gold, spirit-pearl, spirit-ruby, spirit-diamond, and spirit-amethyst." each of these titles would be decorated with a star at minimum and up to nine stars in each rank before the assassin having to undergo the required-tests to rise in rank to a higher title. Which will be given only after successfully completing the required mission from the assassin. Suicidal-Xiangming is aware of the benefits and uses of the pill called sweat-pill which is a kind of poisonous-pill categorized as a seventh-level pill. Any person with a spirit-cultivation lower than a spirit-king would be poisoned instantly after swallowing it since the poisonous-substance would quickly penetrate the dantian and cause every main-meridian to snap and explode and the rest of the branching sub-meridians to wilt and wither before crumbling like a dry leaf! but if a spirit-king ingested it then it will benefit them instead if they suppressed the negative-effects which forces the poisonous-substances to work like a magnet by accumulating hidden-impurities from all over the body and meridian-system before expelling them away with constant sweat and that's where the pill’s name came from. By pure luck and chance Xiangming found an ancient secret-recipe for a higher-ranked pill that could be made from practically the same ingredients of the sweat-pill! the only addition is the stinger and fang-poisons from a Cerberus in the demonic-realm which didn’t lose its pure primordial-energy by mating. Another chance is Xiangming's tamed-beast is a scorpion-tailed Cerberus which is at the peak of the demonic-beast realm and he unhesitatingly placed a sealing-formation on his Cerberus’s demonic-core to prevent it from ascending to the devil-beast realm and snipped-off its junk. Swan-pill is the name of the pill in the secret-recipe and that swan-pill is ranked in the eighth-level and would kill even the strongest of spirit-kings if they dared to ingested it! the only ones who could benefit from that swan-pill are those in the spirit-emperor realm.

Xiangming and Weisheng has a prior-agreement. They both finish this risky mission together and the rare medicinal-ingredients in the reward goes to Weisheng for his research with the level-seven spirit-tool which is the tyrannical-gauntlets. In exchange for these valuables is Weisheng concocting the swan-pill for him which Xiangming will use to get rid of a certain spirit-king who’s asking for these pills. That senior-cultivator is too much of an eyesore in the beautiful-eyes of Xiangming the wind-lightning spirit-cultivator! of course all that bullshit about Xiangming's narcissistic-eyes being beautiful is... self-proclaimed. Their agreement was witnessed and documented by one of the elders from the assassin-guild's and Weisheng had to swear an oath on his martial-spirit not to tell a soul of the recipe or make any of these swan-pill after concocting the first cauldron of pills. Of course the guild-elder had to swear an oath of secrecy as well but the guild-elder asked Xiangming to buy the rest of the swan-pills at a high price and promised to recommend him to one of the grand-elders of the guild if he succeeded in eliminating a spirit-king and accomplish that difficult mission! that grand-elder is a senior spirit-cultivator of wind-lightning elements like Xiangming who couldn't wait to finish his job of killing Mia already because after collecting his reward he can embark on another mission soon afterwards to kill a senior-cultivator in the spirit-king realm with the help of the swan-pill. After accomplishing that feat which would be impossible for others sharing the same tyrant-realm it will be like the doors of his dreams are wide-open and welcoming him. Rising a full-rank in the guild would be done just like that. Possibly two-ranks if he’s lucky! gaining guidance from a senior-cultivator's is certain after the guild-elder promised under oath... possibly a master. Selling the remaining swan-pills to the guild for a considerable-amount of money would assure him in the future that his cultivation-resources are going to be no longer a problem. And the best of all these benefits would be his infamous-reputation across the spirit-world since after killing the saintess of the seamless-sword sect which is the sect-master's and sword-sovereign’s daughter Xiangming went on to kill someone two whole spirit-realms higher than himself a full-fledged powerhouse of this world a spirit-king.

The higher the realm in any system or school of cultivation the harder it is to "transcend" realms and a spirit-king is the seventh-realm of spirit-energy cultivation already! spirit-cultivation realms are : "Spirit-apprentice, spirit-disciple, spirit-master, spirit-grandmaster, spirit-tyrant, spirit-lord, spirit-king, spirit-emperor, spirit-sovereign." these nine major-realms contain nine sub-realms or "stages" each and every three-stages are considered a separate "grade" and are called respectively : "Low, mid, and high.” a third-stage spirit-apprentice would be in the peak of the low-grade in the spirit-apprentice realm and likewise for all the higher-realms and their sub-categories.

While running next to this young-lunatic Xiangming old Weisheng noticed the man’s obvious excitement and how this "sissy" doesn’t seem to be worried about a thing in the world and shook his head at how impulsive this man is. After living more than a century and one-third of another in this dangerous world of cultivation his awareness to danger has developed to an acute sense! somehow ever since Weisheng discovered that Mia found a mysterious young helper with a beast that looked no less dangerous than Xiangming's Cerberus and his gut-feeling kept warning him to be extremely careful from now on. Honestly he would prefer to keep Mia here for one more year and finish their contract before leaving since actually killing the saintess felt extremely unlikely to Weisheng the poison-expert because the girl proved to be far more slippery and gutsy and lethal than they thought she would be without her spirit and inheritance-tools and her abilities of the time-attribute. Not to mention that old Weisheng has already offended a lot of people in his early years of cultivation and quite a few of these monsters became giants now with the least-accomplished person of these enemies being a mid-grade spirit-lord now. But he was fortunate enough to manage keeping his identity hidden in the guild while only suicidal-Xiangming and a few guild-elders know his identity! the administration of the guild made sure to keep their vulnerable-members who are weak or low-ranked assassins with a hidden-identity to protect them from the bullying of senior-cultivators. If the administration let every angry fellow kill their juniors because these upstarting-assassins did their missions then in no-time there will be no one left in the guild! almost all of the members of the assassins-guild are wanted dead or alive by many organizations no matter how high their rank is within the guild. But the minority were unfortunate enough to fail and keep their identities hidden while the majority used the abilities of their hooded-cloaks to block any investigative method and their own abilities to escape at the first signs of danger. Even Xiangming didn't know the identity of old Weisheng in the beginning and he forced the older-man to reveal it first before the deal could be made. With his sweet-offer of an ancient secret-recipe to a new and unknown high-level poisonous-pill that will help Weisheng gain new understanding of the poison-dao and a cluster of medicinal-ingredients on top of the recipe he couldn’t refuse! swan-pill is surely to help Weisheng in increasing his alchemy-rank from a master-alchemist to a grandmaster-alchemist. Afterwards he'll be able to concoct pills of seventh-level if he wanted and that’s something which he’s in a desperate need for right now.

Working with poison certainly expose you to great risks all the time and old Weisheng wanted to cultivate a special kind of physique to counter these risks. The "immunity-physique" is what he’s aiming for and the ultimate goal is to seek the great legend of "immortality" in the "spot of mindless-illusion" yet his aim required Weisheng to sacrifice his vitality and life-force in-order to evolve his regular body-cells into a better version of cells which are poison-resistant and has the ability to feed-on poison itself to evolve endlessly until no poison or corrosive-energy could break these cells! these cells would consume poison to spread further and occupy more of Weisheng's other cells which are vulnerable to poison. If he couldn't keep-up with the spreading wave of poison-resistant and forever-hungry cells by evolving the rest of his body-cells to accommodate and safely-tolerate this corroding-energy which his evolved body-cells passively create after consuming the poisonous-mixtures from everywhere around the body. Then that corrosive-energy will take-over the weak and vulnerable-cells and harm the user’s body instead! old Weisheng found this damaged and incomplete-manual and cultivated its first-stage to thirty-five percent completion already which could be considered quite an achievement already. But it was achieved at the expense of at least four-hundred years of his lifespan plus all his available resources just trying to prevent the incoming disaster which is certain to happen if Weisheng didn’t complete the first-stage of the immunity-physique! when old Weisheng started to cultivate that incomplete-manual he was in a great physical-shape and as a spirit-master he preferred fighting hand-to-hand even if his abilities with the gravity-field could restrain his opponent's mobility and always felt alive when the earth-energy covered his fists before he slugged his foes with all his power. But the disappointment was his underestimation of the brutality of this immunity-technique because after it consumed his life-force and vitality Weisheng discovered that his wounds started to take longer than it should to heal while his stamina started to stagnate and stop improving before it started to fall behind instead! then this damned-technique took his life-force and vitality like a freaking Kun-Peng swallowing the void. First time he sacrificed fifty years of life-force and the technique was cultivated to eight-percent in the first stage and Weisheng naively thought it would be easy. But as it turned-out the most hateful thing in this incomplete-manual is the slower rate of actual body-cell successful-evolution compared to the increasing and growing expenditure of vitality requirement. No matter how much of his vitality and life-force he offers only a small-amount of his body-cells would evolve into the new version of first-stage immunity-cells while their spread of this abominable corrosive-energy in his body would corrode and harm it even further which forced him into seeking alchemy as a secondary-profession to economize his cultivation-resources in a desperate attempt to save himself from succumbing-to some incomplete-manual which he foolishly started cultivating it impulsively! and it turned-out to be Weisheng’s talent which he never thought he has before hitting rock-bottom and actually trying. From an amateur-cultivator dappling with books of alchemy for apprentices to a professional and approved master-alchemist who’s titled with this rank by the recognition of the organization called alchemist-brotherhood which is one of the three greatest alchemist organizations in the spirit-world. Right now his chances of out-living this disaster are only possible if he took one vitality-pill after another to complete the first-stage! the higher ranked these vitality-pills are the better and sooner he would escape that feeling of hovering-danger which has been accompanying him for years.

'Hell... bring them all!' old Weisheng thought that before he gritted his teeth to keep-up with Xiangming in their chase of Mia and Lin while wishing to rewind-back in time (somehow) and slap his younger-version of himself to prevent himself from cultivating this abominable immunity-physique method until there’s sufficient vitality and life-force replenishing-pills to compensate the loss quickly until he’s in the first-stage already. As for the second-stage? maybe when he’s already an alchemist in the ancestor-rank then he might risk it. Last vitality-pill he ate was a seventh-level transformation-pill and it gave him an additional of four-percent evolved-cells! he was almost driven completely mad by the way this immunity-technique seemed to be insistent on pushing him closer towards his grave. That’s why when Xiangming offered his request for an alchemist to help him in making some poison-pill and offering two kinds of tempting rewards Weisheng immediately knew that he has to go on this mission because this was a chance to hopefully get to live to see this immunity-physique’s first-stage to perfection.

Spot of mindless-illusion is one of the many forbidden-areas of this spirit-world and many times you would find the place mentioned everywhere in different history tomes yet unknown to all because no description exist of the place from inside. It is considered by many as the greatest mystery of the world and others argued that the spot of mindless-illusion is very great and all but at least there’s two more places which should be mentioned to be just the same. One of them is this land of forgetfulness itself and the other is the great body of water surrounding the four continents. what lies beyond them? and how far? but the very famous rumor about the spot of mindless-illusion is the immortal-garden hidden deep inside the "everlasting" colorful-mist which covers the spot of mindless-illusion always! those who want to enter has to suppress their cultivation back to a spirit-apprentice first or the equivalent in realm as the most basic-realm like any upstarting cultivator with a slightly better foundation than a mortal’s body. Otherwise they'll only be blocked at the entrance and boundary then no matter what they try and do they'll never be able to forcefully enter the spot of mindless-illusion unless they follow the rules. Peak-cultivators of the spirit-world has tried and failed throughout fifty million years now. They say as you walk deeper inside your mortal-body gets exposed to venomous-substances of various degrees of lethality and as a mere-mortal you can't live without breathing and eating or drinking but everything you deal with inside the spot of mindless-illusion is consisting of poison! then at a certain depth you encounter the first and only place mentioned to exist in the spot of mindless-illusion. The immortal-garden.

They say some devil-cultivator once reached it and successfully harvested three intact herbs of the divine-rank before escaping with the last vestiges of his life since the poison-mist in the immortal-garden was very formidable! of course he got murdered by another to steal these herbs and a very famous battle happened which ended after the death of fourteen spirit-sovereigns and triple the amount of these sovereigns was the casualties of people and beasts from the realm of spirit-emperor or comparable plus hundreds and hundreds of spirit-kings who got caught-up in the momentum of bloodlust and lost their lives too in that battle. Legend has it that the poison in that immortal-garden is beyond possible to endure with a mortal-body especially if the advantage of cultivation is gone! both the land of forgetfulness and the spot of mindless-illusion are somehow alike in their suppression of guests who dare enter but the spot is a lot forceful in actively-attacking those who enter with poison before sending these "guests" out safe and sound right before they’re about to reach the limits of physically-enduring the poison anymore. Yes the spot of mindless-illusion is safe compared to any other forbidden areas because there’s never an incident where someone actually died within it. However there’s many people who spent their lifetimes being stranded and wandering the safe terrains of the spot of mindless-illusion absentmindedly until finally they got kicked-out when they reached the end of their lifespan to die outside! the only common thing between all those who entered its boundary is the memory loss because nobody could ever remember which way or path they took inside the colorful-mist. Even the devil-cultivator couldn't remember how he reached the immortal-garden in the first place when he got kicked-out but the man knew that it was all thankful to his cultivation-technique which made his body capable of resisting the poison better than others. Some said that the spot of mindless-illusion is some kind of tool in the divine-rank which has extremely potent-ability to control poison and the whole experience inside the spot is just one of its trial to find a suitable and compatible new master for itself after the original-owner of the tool died in the past. Since souls of inheritance-rank tools are in fact immortal in some way then divine-rank tools should be the same and the soul of that tool is just waiting for the right candidate.

Old Weisheng was after that legend when he started to cultivate the immunity-physique. He knew that his talent in spirit-cultivation was severely lacking to reach the peak amongst other cultivators of this world. That's why he took the risk of overspending and straining his own vitality so that he would be able to seek that opportunity inside the Spot of mindless-illusion someday! he’s going all out for a miniscule chance in some legend that he wished for it somehow turning-out to be true in the end. With all his heart actually! and Lin would be amazed if he knew of the ambitions of this old assassin then the boy would sincerely recommend the old man to go see a psychiatrist while giving him pitying looks because this poor man didn't hesitate to gamble with his life for a faint chance of getting stronger by following a legend. While any other cultivator and many martial-art cripples who couldn't enter this world of cultivation and become one of its members would look at this courageous poison-expert with respect. Even if he’s their enemy.

----

Two humans and one beast moved ahead while two humans accompanied by another beast chasing them from behind and the search continued for a day which Mia spent the majority of it sleeping. The boy took the two assassins in circles around the vulture-committee and whenever Mia is awake Lin would take the chance of having a cultivator around to gain some information on this unknown spirit-world since old Jin Bao would ignore the boy's attempts to communicate and their previous agreement made it clear to Lin that Jin Bao’s wisdom should be sought-after in cases of emergency. From her he got to know the existence of the four continents and their ruling-sects. Northern-continent is ruled by the church of light and their genius fourteenth-pope Andreas which is the fastest person alive and Katherine Mia’s rival and holdy-daughter of the church also comes from there. The eastern-continent and its ruling-sect being the temple of transparency which teaches buddhism and many of its monks roam the eastern-continent and disguise themselves amongst the mortals in attempt to seek the heart of "Buddha" from the legends.

“Never let your guard down around monks, especially those monks from the temple of transparency because they’re stubborn and persistent, no matter what... don’t agree to any of their deals, even if it’s to your advantage never tie karma with monks because unlike us they actually gain to benefit from collecting karma...”

“I get it, move on already!”

Mia kept warning Lin over and over to be extra careful when dealing with them if he happens to meet any of these bald-donkeys one day. The boy rolled his eyes at this woman who has a knack for nagging and urged her to speak about something else.

“The western-continent has its war-god throne, and the axe-holding statue outwardly as the only two sects to rule the continent, but behind the scenes there’s the moon-temple too... teachings of body-refinement and qi-vitality is the average and is very common on this continent, even other races beside the barbarian-race mostly choose to tread that dao over spirit or soul-cultivation! but countless people in the western-continent are weapon-masters who are able to use weapon-intent. Their strong bodies combined with a suitable weapon makes your race an annoying type of opponent to have in the battlefield, because barbarians tend to choose heavy-weapons which they use to batter their foes until they’re desperately begging for mercy. Hehehe... Lin, what kind of weapon do you like?”

“I never thought of wanting a weapon, but if I would use one then I think it would be a blunt-weapon. I don’t know... only future would tell, I guess! what about the south then?”

“southern-continent has the cultivation-alliance as its ruling-sect, and it’s considered the strongest of the five great-sects of the spirit-world, and also the richest organization of spirit-world! some call the cultivation-alliance the world's bank. Personally I think they deserve that title because of the countless riches and resources these people from the alliance managed to hoard, plus their deep connections with almost every other organization be that big or small.”

“That makes-up four great-sects and four continents! where’s the fifth great-sect then?”

“Heh... listen well little-Lin. The strongest weapon-sect in the spirit-world, is located further south... from the southern-coast of the southern-continent, somewhere there... in a group of islands surrounding a bigger island, like stars surrounding the moon or a natural-formation of islands defying the erosion of the ocean and its great body of endless-water... covered in mist all year round which makes it extremely hard to find without getting lost... is the seamless-sword sect’s headquarters.”

“A lot of theatrics there... the fifth great-sects is ruling some islands, while the other four rule entire continents... I see.”

Then Mia proudly told him of her sect. The seamless-sword sect was the last member of the five great-sects alongside the cultivation-alliance, temple of transparency, church of light, and the war-god throne.

Lin couldn't help but notice the smug on Mia's face when she spoke of her sect and how much she tried to emphasize its greatness to Lin but her attempts to tempt Lin into joining her sect were very clear to the eyes of the great-sage! and he ignored the topic to Mia's disappointment and stepped on her confidence instead.

“We’re a secluded sect alright! we study swordsmanship with devotion and purity of heart.”

“Oh... a bunch of long-haired hermits then.”

“Better than smelly muscle-brains who prefer smashing everything and solving their problems through brute-force... tch.”

“You must really hate my kind huh!”

“Snort...”

By the time when a day has passed Lin had accumulated quite a sum of information from Mia's on this spirit-world. Still Mia was often distracted with her playful personality and got herself involved into some squabbles with Sun from time to time after calling him cute and such in her language! or got herself riled-up by Lin’s provoking words and argued with the boy who found teasing the young-woman very amusing.

Lin was partly satisfied with what he learned from young-woman and felt the need to separate the two from each other soon otherwise Sun would really attack Mia with the intention to harm her if he left her to tease and stick to the tiger like the glue.

“It's time... Mia like I said before, I will not participate in the fight or risk endangering myself, and Sun will only participate if I deem it safe for him to do so.”

Lin gestured for Sun to carry both the supply-box and Mia on his back after their short break then reminded the young-woman. Again the saintess nodded in disappointment to indicate her agreement and she ruffled the tiger's fur with her fingers while mumbling mumbo-jumbo with pouted libs.

“Sun... head towards the northeast, there's a group of mountain-rams there, I need you to try and hunt the biggest one of them buddy.”

“Growl...”

“You and I will stay here until Sun return Mia... according to what you said before, that scorpion-tailed Cerberus is only capable of leading these two assassins towards your current direction, and it isn't able to pinpoint your exact location, or estimate the distance between the two of you. Correct!”

After taking another half-circle in their road back to the territories nearby the nest of vultures Lin ordered Sun and the latter didn't hesitate to throw Mia and the supply-box off of his back and dash towards the northeast direction with all his power on his own. Lin distracted Mia with his question and sniggered inside at how much this young-woman’s liking for his tiger has grew too much and too fast in a little bit over the span of a day.

“En... it can only feel my direction that's all.”

Mia plopped-down on a nearby stone after transmitting back her answer and looked at Lin and waited for him to explain his plan.

“Next part will be a bit tricky but I believe we can pull it off, over there to the west there’s a pathway which leads to a dead-end surrounded by high and steep rock-walls.”

Lin sent Mia the images of the location of his choice and the eyes of the young-woman sharpened because the area is perfect for an ambush.

“The location is good but if you’re planning on making me fight them there then it wouldn’t be any different from me intentionally placing my back against the wall!”

“Here’s what I was hoping to achieve. If we could lead these two assassins there through the narrow entrance "coincidentally" while the vulture-committee and their vulture-king are busy, and in the middle of feasting on the fattest mountain-ram, which Sun just went to hunt, what do you think will happen then?”

“They would be attacked of course! but they can always disengage and leave. What do we stand to gain then? other than making the two of them extra careful in the future.”

“What if I can block their path of retreat? and what if these vultures are a little agitated beforehand?”

“They wouldn't be able to evade the attack of the vultures in that narrow space without fighting back, their casualties will be severe if they managed to somehow survive the attack of the vultures to say the least, if they remained passive. But if they fought back then it will provide me with a chance to mount a sneak-attack on them during the fight, or wait for both camps to become exhausted before I swoop-in like the mighty flood, or until one party finishes the other after paying the price with their flesh and blood then I fall upon them like a hurricane to make a mess of them.”

The transmission between Mia and Lin wasn’t just thoughts in the form of words anymore, it involved simple tactical placements then evolved to a full-blown mock-battle between these vultures which the young-woman never actually seen them before and the two assassins plus their Cerberus! the fight ended in every scenario with Mia using her sword to dismember the two assassins in the most gruesome methods ever. It helped give the boy an idea of how much she must’ve been hating these two.

“Exactly... but it all needs to happen in precise-timing. Once Sun return you need to stay mounted on his back all the time, he will take you to the location and you need to stop the childish-games, at least until we finish dealing with these two assassins.”

“Alright... no fun though.”

“In the mean-time... I'll be responsible for keeping track of the whereabouts of these two assassins, and slightly provoking the vultures before goading them towards the mountain-ram. Since you're the center of my focus in this plan, then I need you to understand that your location and movement during the advance of the assassins through the narrow path or when the vultures are chasing me, needs to be both fast and discreet.”

“Me and Sun can do that... easy.”

“When the assassins enter this dead-end you need to be on the other side of the mountain with Sun long before that, while keeping yourselves hidden from the eyes of the kettle of vultures if they search for the offender who brought them in that place in the first place which is me.”

“You just want to do all the fun stuff huh!”

“After the vulture-committee’s search of me turns-out to be a failure, these vultures will most-certainly take the sudden fortune of a free meal which is the hunted mountain-ram. Then I'll use vultures’ distraction to my advantage and circle-around to the pathway-entrance, and block it once the two assassins and their Cerberus cross the half-way point of the narrow-pathway, which gets them discovered by the vultures much faster, and that will be the signal for you to return with Sun to enjoy watching the show.”

“Sly... you’re really cunning like an old fox.”

“Whether or not you're required to dirty your hands will be up to the capabilities of these assassins, but I don't think it's going to be needed, these average brown-vultures are many and their vulture-king and its hundred-strong followers are really dangerous.”

“Yeah these birdies does seem like trouble alright... but I want to dirty my hands with their guts.”

“Any questions?”

Lin knew what Mia wanted to hear and calmly told her his plan while ignoring her attempts to mess with him.

Mia on the other hand felt her lower back tingle with a shiver of dread when she heard Lin describe his tactics to trap these two assassins and tried to cover it with these silly comments of hers! if she didn't know Lin's true age already then the young-woman would've mistaken the boy for a veteran-strategist of the military from some glorious-empire who’s laying-down the solid plans of a true conquest aiming at the heart of the army from another nation. She felt it before when Lin kept pestering her with all his questions about the world and its common-knowledge like some dedicated official new to working in a library yet he’s hungry to know. The boy’s immense curiosity is very noticeable and his passion is commendable and all. But the earlier narration which he gave of his plan plus the transmission of how to efficiently trap the two assassins and drag the vulture into the fight while hiding both traces of himself and herself. Did open another curtain—which she missed to notice amidst her earlier frustrations at the martial-spirit ranking of quickest-awakening which was lowered a couple ranks by the twins—to reveal to Mia another type of talent which this young boy has. If only she would know! that Lin's true talent isn't the early awakening of his martial-spirit or his accomplishments in soul-cultivation and certainly not his dormant-bloodline and the untapped-potential in body-refinement. Lin's accumulated knowledge and intellectual-capabilities were unsurpassed in his previous life. Then his mentality and thought-process went through another stage of refinement and improvement when Lin’s soul-seeking helped in changing all the scattered memories into becoming some crucial-part of the boy’s soul-body! like adding wings to a ferocious-tiger Lin’s current thought-process and comprehension-abilities already surpassed what would be called "godly" in his previous life and reached the current stage which Lin himself can no-longer estimate how far it advanced anymore! Right now Lin's number-one talent manifests from within his brain and circulates around the word "intellect". On top of his shoulders lies one special-kind of monstrous-brain which Lin is sure that it can only exist in another person in this spirit-world. That person would be Lily his twin-sister.

Shaking her head slightly to remove these distracting thoughts. Mia felt the sudden urge to jump at the boy and restrain him before dragging him back to her sect. But she can always do that and take him back with her after she's done with the matter of these two assassins anyway. Honestly she just wants to do it to enjoy the look on her father's face when he sees the terrible-amount of talent which Lin has despite being a few days older than six years.

“None... commander Lin, I’m at your service, let’s trash some naughty assassins together. This is going to be fun... I just know it.”

“Alright then... behind that rocky-wall over there, there's a water-source with enough water for you to wash-up. Sorry but... please make it a fast shower, currently we don't have enough time for a long soak.”

Lin saw Mia refrain from asking questions and seemed to daydream about something before reverting back to her happy-go-lucky attitude. He told her to go clean-up because the young-woman currently looks like his mother from back then in her previous days of living a prehistoric-style of life inside a cave.

“Yay! but... won’t you join me?”

“Why would I join you?”

“Because I hate taking showers on my own... plus how lonely it feels, and it’s fun this way!”

“Then... do you prefer keeping your attire of soot and dirt until you find your partner?”

“Tsk... it’s your loss anyway.”

Mia glared at Lin and transmitted that while clicking her tongue and walking away.

“Heh... what an odd woman!”

Lin just closed his eyes and muttered that while trying to rest his slightly-exhausted martial-spirit. He sat alone on top of the supply-box like someone who slept in that cross-legged position! but his soul-force scanned every meter of the two kilometer domain of soul-sense. Once Mia started to undress... the boy exempted that small area from the range of his soul-sense temporarily.

“No peeking! either come join me like a good boy or just scram.”

“Odd indeed.”